Gorean Animals
' Ant' “Each of these, however, the world of the man, the cuttlefish, the butterfly, the ant, the sleen, the Priest-King is congruent, though perhaps in unusual ways, with the presumably singular, unique physical world. Beyond this,perception is largely a matter of interpreting a flood of cues,or coded bits, out of which we construct a unified, coherent,harmonious world. Though the eye is a necessary condition for seeing, one does not, so to speak, "see" with the eye, but,oddly enough, with the brain.” Tribesmen of Gor “So bravely and pathetically might an ant have attacked a giant. I had no doubt as to the courage of Kisu; Iwas less confident, however, that he had the common sense and wisdom expected of a Mfalme.” Explorers of Gor Anteater “A great spined anteater, more than twenty feet in length,shuffled about the edges of the camp. We saw its long, thintongue dart in and out of its mouth.” Explorers of Gor " More than six varieties of anteater are also found here,and more than twenty kinds of small, fleet, single-horned tabuk. On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid men. Theyare less dangerous in the rain forest, generally, than in thenorthern latitudes. I do not know why this should be the case.Perhaps it is because in the rain forest food is usually plentifulfor them, and, thus, there is little temptation for them totransgress the boundaries of their customary prey categories.They will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked or challenged, attack with dispatch. Conspicuously absent in therain forests of the Ua were sleen. This is just as well for the sleen, commonly, hunts on the first scent it takes upon emerging from its burrow after dark. Moreover it huntssingle-mindedly and tenaciously. It can be extremelydangerous to men, even more so, I think, than the Voltai, ornorthern, larl. I think the sleen, which is widespread on Gor,is not found, or not frequently found, in the jungles becauseof the enormous rains, and the incredible dampness andhumidity. Perhaps the sleen, a burrowing, furred animal, findsitself uncomfortable in such a habitat.” Explorers of Gor Bee ' “Did they not belong in some organic whole, in some natural relationship, selected for throughout time and history?The bee's dances betokened an avenue to nectar; the fragrance of the flower, seemingly such a meaningless thing of beauty, called forth, luring the bee to its pollen; the swiftness of the antelope paid tribute to the ferocity and agility of the carnivore, the fangs of the carnivore to the elusiveness of his quarry; at the ends of migrations lay the spawning waters and nesting grounds of species; swarmings brought sexes into proximity; and meaning was given to thetrek of the turtle, as it led at last to the sea.” Dancers of Gor ' Beetle "It scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle," said the first slave."What does the Golden Beetle kill?" I asked."Priest-Kings," said the second slave” Priest Kings of Gor Bint “ Ayari nodded, shuddering. Such blood might attract the bint, a fanged, carnivorous marsh eel, or the predatory,voracious blue grunt, a small, fresh-water variety of the much larger and familiar salt-water grunt of Thassa. The blue gruntis particularly dangerous during the daylight hours precedingits mating periods, when it schools. Its mating periods aresynchronized with the phases of Gor's major moon, the fullmoon reflecting on the surface of the water somehow triggering the mating instinct. During the daylight hours preceding such a moon, as the restless grunts school, they will tear anything edible to pieces which crosses their path. During the hours of mating, however, interestingly, one canmove and swim among them untouched. The danger,currently, of the bint and blue grunt, however, was notprimarily due to any peril they themselves might represent,particularly as the grunt would not now be schooling, but dueto the fact that they, drawn by shed blood, might be followedby tharlarion” Explorers of Gor Bosk “These wagons, too, apparently, were each drawn by a pair of the oxlike creatures, called bosk. The wagons were nowunhitched. Several animals, those called bosk, ten or more,hobbled, browsed among the trees on the other side of thecamp.” Slave girl of Gor“He sat, cross-legged, behind the low table. On it were hotbread, yellow and fresh, hot black wine, steaming, with itssugars, slices of roast bosk, the scrambled eggs of vulos,pastries with creams and custards.” Beasts of Gor ' Clam' ”I looked at him steadily. "They are probably false stones,"I said, "amber droplets, the pearls of the Vosk sorp, the polished shell of the Tamber clam, glass colored and cut in Ar for trade with ignorant southern peoples." Nomads of Gor Crayfish “On and in this debris, breaking it down, are several varieties of bacteria. These bacteria are devoured by protozoons androtifers. These, in turn, become food for various flatwormsand numerous tiny segmented creatures, such as isopods,which, in turn, serve as food for small, blind, white crayfish,lelts and salamanders.” Tribesmen of Gor Cuttlefish“Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate digestion ofcuttlefish. Fortunately, too, this calculus is sometimes found free in the sea, expelled with feces. It took more than a yearto distill, age, blend and bond the ingredients.” Maraunders of Gor Deer “Once I startled a small band of deer and found myself in the midst oftheir bounding shapes buffeting me in the darkness.” Tarnsman of Gor"Perhaps," suggested Gorm, "it is diseased or injured, andcan no longer hunt the swift deer of the north?" Maraunders of Gor Eel“I knew that the fastening of those jaws, in a fair bite, couldgouge ounces of flesh from a man's body. Too I knew that theeel seldom takes its food out of the water, that such strikes,in all probability, had not been selected for. Accordingly, theonly inward compensation for the refraction differential wouldpresumably have to be learned by trial and error.” Guardsman of Gor “A large eel suddenlybroke the surface tearing at the side of my abraded leg. I feltthe teeth scratching and sliding along my leg, its head twistedto the side. Then it was back in the water. "Good, good," Icalled. "Nearly, nearly. Try again, big fellow!" Guardsman of Gor Finch“In the second level, that of the canopies, isfound an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches,mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel,the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and manymore.” Explorers of GorFisher, Ushindi “His head was surmounted by an elaborate headdress, formedlargely from the long, white, curling feathers of the Ushindifisher, a long-legged, wading bird.” Explorers of Gor Fleer“My master looked upward, at the moons. From through thetrees, on the other side of the camp, came what I took to bethe sound of a bird, the hook-billed, night-crying fleer, whichpreys on nocturnal forest urts. The cry was repeated threetimes.” Explorers of Gor Flies“They tickled her with the lanceolate leaves of the tree. Theyput honey about her, to attract the tiny black sand flies,which infest such water holes in the spring” Tribesman of Gor“At certain times in the summer even insects will appear,black, long-winged flies, in great swarms, coating the sides oftents and the faces of men.” Beasts of Gor Frevet"That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore."We have several in the house," he said. "They control theinsects, the beetles and lice, and such." Mercenaries of Gor Fruit tindel“Behind and about him had swirled a gigantic cloak of yellow and red feathers, from the crested lit and the fruittindel, brightly plumaged birds of the rain forest.” Explorers of Gor Gant“Each of the bones is carved to resemble ananimal, such as an arctic gant, a northern bosk, a lart, atabuk or sleen, and so on.” Beasts of Gor“I stepped aside to let a young girl pass, who carried twobaskets of eggs, those of the migratory arctic gant. They nestin the mountains of the Hrimgar and in steep, rockyoutcroppings, called bird cliffs, found here and there juttingout of the tundra. The bird cliffs doubtless bear somegeological relation to the Hrimgar chains. When such eggs arefrozen they are eaten like apples.” Beasts of Gor “I heard a bird some forty or fifty yards to my right; it sounded like a marsh gant, a small, horned, web-footedaquatic fowl, broad-billed and broad-winged. Marsh girls, thedaughters of rence growers, sometimes hunt them withthrowing sticks.” Raiders of Gor Gatch, armored“On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts.” Beasts of Gor Giani “In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may befound, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man.” Explorers of Gor Gint “In the second level, that of the canopies, isfound an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches,mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel,the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and manymore.” Explorers of Gor Gitches "That is a roach," hesaid. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites arerather painful. Some of them are big fellows, too. But therearen't many of them around. The frevets see to it. Achiatesprides himself on a clean house." Mercenaries of Gor Goat “The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. Itwas a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth one's life tocome within twenty yards of one.” Priests Kings of Gor Golden beetle “Their decorations were largely invisible lines of scent traced with great care on the interiors of their compartments. Their most intense, pleasurable experience was perhaps to immerse their antennae in the filamented,narcotic mane of the golden beetle, which would then,piercing them with its curved, hollow, laterally moving jawpincers,drain them of their body fluid, feeding itself, slaying them. The social bond of the Priest-Kings is Nest Trust.” Tribesmen of Gor "It scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle," said the first slave. "What does the Golden Beetle kill?" I asked. "Priest-Kings," said the second slave. I would surely have pressed forward this inquiry but at that very moment we arrived at a tall steel portal in the hallway.” Priests Kings of Gor “We came upon a Golden Beetle though none had everbeen seen in that place and I wanted to go to the Beetle and I put down my head and approached it but the girl seized my antennae and dragged me away, thus saving my life."Misk lowered his head again and extended his antennae forgrooming."The pain was excruciating," said Misk, "and I could notbut follow her in spite of the fact that I wanted to go to theGolden Beetle. In an Ahn of course I no longer wanted to goto the Beetle and I knew then she had saved my life.” Priests Kings of Gor Hooked- billed gort “In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, someflighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely onrodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistlingfinch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and land gim.” Explorers of Gor Grasshopper "Oh!" cried the girl, startled. A grasshopper, red, the sizeof a horned gim, a small, owllike bird, some four ounces inweight, common in the northern latitudes, had leaped nearthe fire, and disappeared into the brush.” Explorers of Gor Grub borer “In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, someflighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely onrodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistlingfinch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and land gim.” Explorers of Gor Grunt “About two or three minutes later I heard thehunger grunt of a wild tharlarion and a moment afterward thepiercing scream of a terrified girl.” Tarnsman of Gor “Half out of the water,then returning to it, I saw a great speckled grunt, four-gilled.It dove, and swirled away. Another man came to help withthe line. I observed the struggle.” Slavegirl of Gor Gull “Our ship lay to, east of the great chain. I could see little,because of the fog. It was a chilly morning. The water lickedat the strakes. Far off, unseen, I heard the cry of a Vosk gull.” Rogue of Gor Herlit “An adult Herlit is often four feet in heightand has a wingspan of some seven to eight feet.” Blood Brothers of Gor Hermit bird “Somewhere, far off, but carrying through theforest, was the rapid, staccato slap of the sharp beak of theyellow-breasted hermit bird, pounding into the reddish bark ofthe Tur tree, hunting for larvae.” Hunters of Gor Hinti “'Hala' is Kaiila for the Goreanhinti, which are small, active insects. They resemble fleas butare not parasitic.” Blood Brothers of Gor Hith “In another case, somnolent and swollen, I saw a raregolden hith, a Gorean python whose body, even when unfed,would be difficult for a full-grown man to encircle with hisarms.” Priest Kings of Gor Hurlit "The first southern migrations of meadow kites," he said,"have already taken place. The migrations of the forest hurlitand the horned gim do not take place until later in the spring.This is the time that the Vosk gulls fly." Nomads of Gor Hurt “Cernus of Ar wore a coarse black robe, woven probablyfrom the wool of the bounding, two-legged Hurt, adomesticated marsupial raised in large numbers in theenvirons of several of Gor's northern cities.” Assassins of Gor Jard “The jard is a small scavenger. It flies in large flocks. Aflock, like flies, can strip the meat from a tabuk in minutes.” Beasts of Gor Kailiauk “Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd ofstartled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminantof the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked inred and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a tridentof horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes andyoung within the circle of tridents; they, too, had fled” Nomads of Gor "The kailiauk is a noble animal," said Cuwignaka. "Let thesun shine upon it.""This is interesting to me," I said."What?" asked Cuwignaka."This business," I said.” Blood Brothers of Gor Kite “Overhead a wild Gorean kite, shrilling, beat its lonely wayfrom this place, seemingly no different from a thousand otherplaces on these broad grasslands of the south.” Nomads of Gor Larl “mountain patrol or a small company of hunters, perhaps afterthe agile and bellicose Gorean mountain goat, the longhaired,spiral-horned verr, or, more dangerously, the larl, atawny leopardlike beast indigenous to the Voltai and severalof Gor's ranges, standing an incredible seven feet high at theshoulder and feared for its occasional hunger-drivenvisitations to the civilized plains below.” Tarnsmen of Gor Lart, Snow “He took the pelt and examined it. Thesnow lart hunts in the sun. The food in the second stomachcan be held almost indefinitely. It is filled in the fall and mustlast the lart through the winter night, which lasts months, thenumber of months depending on the latitude of his individualterritory. It is not a large animal. It is about ten inches highand weighs between eight and twelve pounds. It ismammalian, and has four legs. It eats bird's eggs and preyson the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces inweight, which hibernates during the winter.” Beasts of Gor Leech “I flicked a salt leech from the side of my light rush craft withthe corner of the tem-wood paddle.” Raiders of Gor “Man has not surrendered it entirely to the tharlarion, the Ul and the saltleech. There are scattered, almost invisible, furtivecommunities of rence growers who eke out their livelihood inthe delta, nominally under the suzerainty of Port Kar. Thecloth I found had probably been a trail mark for some rence growers” Raiders of Gor Leem “It is filled in the fall and mustlast the lart through the winter night, which lasts months, thenumber of months depending on the latitude of his individualterritory. It is not a large animal. It is about ten inches highand weighs between eight and twelve pounds. It ismammalian, and has four legs. It eats bird's eggs and preyson the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces inweight, which hibernates during the winter.” Beasts of Gor “The hunter drew forth from the bundle of furs two tinypelts of the leem. These were brown, the summer coats of theanimals.” Beasts of Gor "How do you work your living?" I asked. "Are you abandit?""No," said he. "I am a trader. I trade north of Ax Glacierfor the furs of sleen, the pelts of leem and larts.""A lonely work," I said” Beasts of Gor Lelt “The lelt is commonly five to seven inchesin length. It is white, and long-finned. It swims slowly andsmoothly, its fins moving the water very little, whichapparently contributes to its own concealment in a blindenvironment and makes it easier to detect the vibrations ofits prey, any of several varieties of tiny segmented creatures, predominantly isopods. The brain of the lelt is interesting,containing an unusually developed odor-perception center andtwo vibration-reception centers. Its organ of balance, orhidden "ear," is also unusually large, and is connected with anunusually large balance center in its brain. Its visual center,on the other hand, is stunted and undeveloped, a remnant, avague genetic memory of an organ long discarded in itsevolution.” Tribesmen of Gor Lice “I withdrew some of the lice, the size of marbles, whichtend to infest wild tarns, and slapped them roughly into themouth of the tarn, wiping them off on his tongue. I did thisagain and again, and the tarn stretched out his neck.” Tarnsmen of Gor “The others were dotted with what appeared, from the height,to be yellow lice—the figures of the Afflicted.” Tarnsmen of Gor "Be silent," said another girl, angrily.I thrashed on the wood. I could feel the ship lice.I could not tear at them with my fingernails; I was notchained in such a way as to permit that; this was intentional.I writhed on the slatted wood, screaming."Be silent," said the first girl. "It is not the time permittedfor screaming!" Slavegirl of Gor Lit “In the second level, that of the canopies, isfound an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches,mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel,the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and manymore.” Explorers of Gor “He wore, too, the teeth of this beast as anecklace. Behind and about him had swirled a gigantic cloak of yellow and red feathers, from the crested lit and the fruittindel, brightly plumaged birds of the rain forest.” Explorers of Gor “In the level of theemergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots,long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits.” Explorers of Gor Mindar "That is a forest bird," said Kisu.The mindar is adapted for short, rapid flights, almostspurts, its wings beating in sudden flurries, hurrying it frombranch to branch, for camouflage in flower trees, and fordrilling the bark of such trees for larvae and grubs.” Explorers of Gor Monkeys “We could hear the chattering of guernon monkeys about.” Explorers of Gor “In the level of theemergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots,long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Monkeys and treeurts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found inthis highest level.” Explorers of Gor ” In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may befound, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jitmonkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts andthe prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, notdangerous to man.” Explorers of Gor st “The ost isusually an orange snake, but these were Ushindi osts, whichare red with black stripes. Anatomically, and with respect totoxin, I am told they are almost identical to the common ost.” Explorers of Gor “One to be feared evenmore perhaps was the tiny ost, a venomous, brilliantly orangereptile little more than a foot in length, whose bite spelled anexcruciating death within seconds.” Outlaw of Gor Panther “He had worn at his loins the pelts of theyellow panther. He wore, too, the teeth of this beast as anecklace.” Explorers of Gor“The forestpanther is a proud beast, but, too, he does not care to bedistracted in his hunting. We had not confronted one another.I only hoped that I might not be what they were hunting. Iwas not. They turned aside into the darkness, padding away.I nearly fainted. I felt so helpless. I pulled at my boundwrists, but they were uncompromisingly secured behind myback.” Captive of Gor Parrot “On the other hand, shoulda bird, such as a mindar or parrot, or a small animal, such asa leaf urt or tiny tarsk, become entangled in the net thespider swiftly emerges.” Explorers of Gor Parsit fish “The parsit current isthe main eastward current above the polar basin. It is calledthe parsit current for it is followed by several varieties ofmigrating parsit, a small, narrow, usually striped fish. Sleen,interestingly, come northward with the parsit, their ownmigrations synchronized with those of the parsit, which formsfor them their principal prey.” Beasts of Gor Pike Fish “And, too,larger animals usually move more slowly than smaller ones. Ifit were a school of fifteen-inch Gorean pike, for example, Imight kill dozens and yet die half eaten within minutes.” Nomads of Gor Porcupines “In the second level, that of the canopies, isfound an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches,mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel,the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and manymore. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on.” Explorers of Gor Rennels “I was told by Kamchak that once an army of athousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels,poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest, crushed by the wheel of the lead wagon.” Nomads of Gor Roach “"That is a roach," hesaid. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites arerather painful. Some of them are big fellows, too.” Mercenaries of Gor Salamander “Among the lelts, too, were, here and there, tinysalamanders, they, too, white and blind. Like the lelts, theywere, for their size, long-bodied, were capable of long periodsof dormancy and possessed a slow metabolism, useful in anenvironment in which food is not plentiful. Unlike the leltsthey had long, stemlike legs. At first I had taken them forlelts, skittering about the rafts, even to the fernlike filamentsat the sides of their head, but these filaments, in the case ofthe salamanders, interestingly, are not vibration receptors butfeather gills, an external gill system. This system, common inthe developing animal generally, is retained even by the adultsalamanders, who are, in this environment, permanentlygilled. The gills of the lelt are located at the lower sides of itsjaw, not on the sides of its head, as is common in open-waterfish. The feather gills of the salamanders, it seems, allowthem to hunt the same areas as the lelts for the same prey,the vibration effects of these organs being similar, withoutfrightening them away, thus disturbing the water and alertingpossible prey. They often hunt the same areas. Although thisform of salamander possesses a lateral-line set of vibrationreceptors, like the lelt, it lacks the cranial receptors and itslateral-line receptors do not have the sensitivity of the lelt's.” Tribesmen of Gor Scorpions “Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on.” Explorers of Gor Shark “At the top of the food chain in the pits, a descendant,dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas, stood thelong-bodied, nine-gilled salt shark.The waters were calm.” Tribesmen of Gor “I cried out with fear. One of the men shouted with anger.Rising from under the grunt swiftly was a long-bodied shark,white, nine-gilled. It tore the grunt from the line and bore itaway.” Slavegirl of Gor “Their fishingand hunting were seasonal, and depended on the animals.Sometimes they managed to secure the northern shark,sometimes even the toothed Hunjer whale or the lesscommon Karl whale, which was a four-fluked, baleen whale.” Beasts of Gor “…variety of unpleasant sea life, water tharlarion, Vosk turtles,and the nine-gilled Gorean shark, the latter brought in tankson river barges up the Vosk, to be then transported in tankson wagons across the margin of desolation to Ar for theevent.” Assassins of Gor “….such as thewater tharlarion or the long-bodied, nine-gilled marsh shark.” Raiders of Gor Slee “On the floor itself are also found severalvarieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as thearmored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts.” Exploers of Gor Sleen “The beast had been onanother scent, probably that of tabuk, a small, single-hornedantelopelike creature, its common game, and, on its trail, wehad constituted only a distraction. Such a beast is a tirelessand single-minded hunter. Domesticated, it is often used as atracker. Once it sets out upon a scent it commonly pursues itunwaveringly. Evolution, in its case, has, among other things,apparently selected for tenacity. This is a useful feature, of course, in tracking. Fortunately ours had not been the firstscent that night which the beast, upon emerging from its lair,had taken. Had it been there would have been grim dealings.It is called a sleen.” Slavegirl of Gor Slime worm “We had not walked far when we passed a long, wormlikeanimal, eyeless, with a small red mouth, that inched its wayalong the corridor, hugging the angle between the wall andfloor.Neither of my two guides paid the animal any attention.Indeed, even I myself, after my experience of thearthropod on the platform and the flat, sluglike beast on itstransportation disk in the plaza, was growing accustomed tofinding strange creatures in the Nest of the Priest-Kings."What is it?" I asked."A Matok," said one of the slaves."Yes," said the other, "it is in the Nest but not of the Nest.""But I thought I was a Matok," I said."You are," said one of the slaves.We continued on."What do you call it?" I asked."Oh," said one of the slaves. "It is a Slime Worm.""What does it do?" I asked."Long ago it functioned in the Nest," said one of theslaves, "as a sewerage device, but it has not served thatfunction in many thousands of years.""But yet it remains in the Nest.""Of course," said one of the slaves, "the Priest-Kings aretolerant.""Yes," said the other, "and they are fond of it, and arethemselves creatures of great reverence for tradition.""The Slime Worm has earned its place in the Nest," saidthe other."How does it live?" I asked. "It scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle," said thefirst slave."What does the Golden Beetle kill?" I asked."Priest-Kings," said the second slave.” Priest kings of Gor Sloths “Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on.” Explorers of Gor Snails “Returning to me he held one of the snails, whose shell hecrushed between his fingers, and sucked out the animal,chewing and swallowing it. He then threw the shell fragmentsoverboard.” Maraunders of Gor Snakes “In the level of theemergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots,long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Monkeys and treeurts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found inthis highest level.” Explorers of Gor Spiders “When I returned thesmall men had rolled the carcass of the beast to one side. Itreposed there, gigantic and globular, in the fashion of therock spider, its legs tucked beneath it. The small men thenstood again about the upper edge of the depression. "Tal,"said their leader to me, grinning. "Tal," I said to him.” Explorers of Gor “I looked down. The web was now trembling. Approachingher now, moving swiftly across the web, was a gigantic rockspider. It was globular, hairy, brown and black, some eightfeet in thickness. It had pearly eyes and black, side-hingedjaws.Janice threw back her head and screamed with misery. Islid down the side of the depression to the edge of the net. Idrew back the spear I carried. I flung it head-on into thespider. It penetrated its body and slid almost through. Itreached up with its two forelegs and drew it out. It thenturned toward me. As soon as it had turned in my direction,away from the girl, the small men, howling and shrieking,began to hurl their small spears into its body. It stood puzzledon the web. I scrambled about the side of the depression,slipping once, and retrieved the spear. It was wet with theviscous body fluids of the arachnid. It turned again and I, slashing with the spear blade, cut loose a jointed segment ofits leg. It charged and I thrust the spear blade into its face.Some of the small men then hurried about the depressionstriking at the beast with palm leaves, distracting it,infuriating it. As it turned toward them I cut another segmentof one of its rear legs from it. It then, unsteadily, againmoved toward me. I slipped to the side and cut at thejuncture of its cephalothorax and abdomen. It began to exudefluid. It retreated sideways from me. It turned erratically. Theside-hinged jaws opened and shut. A strand of webbing fromone of its abdominal glands began to emerge meaninglessly. Ithen, as it dragged itself backward on the web, cut away atits head. The small men then flooded past me, clambering onthe web itself, and began to crawl upon the beast with theirknives, cutting it to pieces….” Explorers of Gor Squirrels “Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on.” Explorers of Gor Tanagers “In the second level, that of the canopies, isfound an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches,mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel,the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and manymore.” Explorers of Gor Tarn “The Goreans believe,incredibly enough, that the capacity to master a tarn is innateand that some men possess this characteristic and that somedo not. One does not learn to master a tarn. It is a matter ofblood and spirit, of beast and man, of a relation between twobeings which must be immediate, intuitive, spontaneous. It issaid that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, andthat those who are not die in this first meeting.” Tarnsmen of Gor “The most common tarn, however, is greenishbrown. Disregarding the disproportion in size, the Earth birdwhich the tarn most closely resembles is the hawk, with theexception that it has a crest somewhat of the nature of ajay's.Tarns, who are vicious things, are seldom more than halftamed and, like their diminutive earthly counterparts, thehawks, are carnivorous. It is not unknown for a tarn to attack and devour his own rider. They fear nothing but the tarngoad.They are trained by men of the Caste of Tarn Keepersto respond to it while still young, when they can be fastenedby wires to the training perches. Whenever a young birdsoars away or refuses obedience in some fashion, he isdragged back to the perch and beaten with the tarn-goad.” Tarnsmen of Gor “Almost immediately from somewhere, perhaps from aledge out of sight, rose a fantastic object, another giant tarn,even larger than the first, a glossy sable tarn which circledthe cylinder once and then wheeled toward me, landing a fewfeet away, his talons striking on the roof with a sound likehurled gauntlets. His talons were shod with steel—a war tarn.He raised his curved beak to the sky and screamed, liftingand shaking his wings. His enormous head turned toward me,and his round, wicked eyes blazed in my direction. The nextthing I knew his beak was open; I caught a brief sight of histhin, sharp tongue, as long as a man's arm, darting out andback, and then, snapping at me, he lunged forward, strikingat me with that monstrous beak, and I heard the Older Tarl cry out in horror, "The goad! The goad!" Tarnsmen of Gor Tarsk "Watch out!" I said.The tarsk, a small one, no more than forty pounds, tusked,snorting, bits of leaf scattering behind it, charged.” Explorers of Gor “…Gorean bread, baked in the shape ofround, flat loaves, fresh and hot; my mouth watered for atabuk steak or, perhaps, if I were lucky, a slice of roast tarsk,the formidable six-tusked wild boar of Gor's temperateforests. I smiled to myself, felt the sack of coins in my tunic,bent down and pushed the door open.” Outlaw of Gor Termites “The rock spider has been mentioned, andtermites, also. Termites, incidentally, are extremely importantto the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break downand destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. Thetermite "dust," thereafter, by the action of bacteria, isreduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineralmaterials.” Explorers of Gor Tharlarion “The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of aGorean warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species ofsaddle-lizard, used mostly by clans who have never masteredtarns. No one in the City of Cylinders, as far as I knew,maintained tharlarions, though they were supposedly quitecommon on Gor, particularly in the lower areas—inswampland and on the deserts.” Tarnsmen of Gor “I feared the great tharlarionof the caravans. Often the animals wore belled harnesses.Once we were passed by a great slave caravan. There weremore than four hundred wagons with girls ankle-chained inthem. It was a caravan of Mintar, the great merchant.” Slavegirl of Gor Tibit “I heard the cry of seabirds, broad-winged gulls and the small, stick-legged tibits,pecking in the sand for tiny mollusks. There was a salt smellin the air, swift and bright in the wind. Thassa was beautiful.” Hunters of Gor Toos “I swung the transportation disk in a graceful arc to oneside of the tunnel to avoid running into a crablike organismcovered with overlapping plating and then swung the diskback in another sweeping arc to avoid slicing into a stalkingPriest-King who lifted his antennae quizzically as we shotpast."The one who was not a Priest-King," quickly said Mul-Al-Ka, "was a Matok and is called a Toos and lives on discardedfungus spores." Priests kings of Gor Tumit “It was probably developed for hunting thetumit, a huge, flightless carnivorous bird of the plains, but theWagon Peoples use it also, and well, as a weapon of war.” Nomads of Gor Turtles “…I conjectured it would be a water animal. Nothing had yetbroken the surface. It would probably be a sea-tharlarion, orperhaps several such; sometimes the smaller sea-tharlarion,seemingly not much more than teeth and tail, fluttering inpacks beneath the waves, are even more to be feared thantheir larger brethren, some of whom in whose jaws an entiregalley can be raised from the surface of the sea and snappedin two like a handful of dried reeds of the rence plant. Itmight, too, be a Vosk turtle. Some of them are gigantic,almost impossible to kill, persistent, carnivorous. Yet, if it hadbeen a tharlarion or a Vosk turtle, it might well have brokenthe surface for air. It did not.” Nomads of Gor “To my right, some two or three feet under the water, I sawthe sudden, rolling yellowish flash of the slatted belly of awater tharlarion, turning as it made its swift strike, probably aVosk carp or marsh turtle. Immediately following I saw thewater seem to glitter for a moment, a rain of yellowishstreaks beneath the surface, in the wake of the watertharlarion, doubtless its swarm of scavengers, tiny watertharlarion, about six inches long, little more than teeth andtail.” Raiders of Gor UL“Also, at night, crossing the bright disks of Gor's threemoons might occasionally be seen the silent, predatoryshadow of the ul, a giant pterodactyl ranging far from itsnative swamps in the delta of the Vosk.” Outlaw of Gor “The delta of the Vosk, for most practical purposes, avast marsh, an area of thousands of square pasangs, wherethe Vosk washes down to the sea, is closed to shipping. It istrackless and treacherous, and the habitat of marsh tharlarionand the predatory Ul, a winged lizard with wing-spans ofseveral feet. It is also inhabited by the rencers, who live uponrence islands, woven of the rence reed, masters of the longbow, usually obtained in trade with peasants to the east ofthe delta. They are banded together under the nominal…” Explorers of Gor Umbrella Bird “Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on. In thelower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds,such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird.” Explorers of Gor Un identified creature in Sadar “At that moment to my horror a large, perhaps eight feetlong and a yard high, multilegged, segmented arthropodscuttled near, its eyes weaving on stalks."It's harmless," said the Priest-King.The arthropod stopped and the eyes leaned toward us andthen its pincers clicked twice.I reached for my sword.Without turning it scuttled backwards away, its body platesrustling like plastic armor."See what you have done," said the Priest-King. "You havefrightened it." Priest Kings of Gor “I stepped aside as a flat, sluglike creature, clinging withseveral legs to a small transportation disk, swept by."We must hurry," said Sarm.” Priest Kings of Gor “I saw one humanoid creature, small with areceding forehead and excessively hairy face and body,bounding about in one case, racing along and leaping with hisfeet against the wall and then with the momentumestablished dashing along the next wall of the case and thendropping to the floor to repeat again this peculiar circuit.” Priest Kings of Gor Urt “The tiny urt, a commonrodent of Gorean cities, was bringing a silver tarn disk in themarkets.” Tarnsmen of Gor Vart “The Vart is a small, sharp-toothed wingedmammal, carnivorous, which commonly flies in flocks.” Explorers of Gor “Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieksof the vart pack, a batlike swarm of flying rodents, each thesize of a small dog. They could strip a carcass in a matter ofminutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh tothe recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen forits home. Moreover, some vart packs were rabid.” Outlaw of Gor Verr “The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. Itwas a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth one's life tocome within twenty yards of one.” Priest Kings of Gor Vints “Vints,insects, tiny, sand-colored, covered them. On the same rinds,taking and eating vints, were two small cell spiders.” Tribesmen of Gor Vulo “She had been carrying a wicker basketcontaining vulos, domesticated pigeons raised for eggs andmeat.” Nomads of Gor Wader “In theground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, someflighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely onrodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistlingfinch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and land gim.Along the river, of course, many other species of birds maybe found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-neckedand yellow-legged waders.” Explorers of Gor Whale “Sometimes they managed to secure the northern shark,sometimes even the toothed Hunjer whale or the lesscommon Karl whale, which was a four-fluked, baleen whale.” Beasts of Gor “Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate digestion ofcuttlefish.” Maraunders of Gor Wingfish "Now this," Saphrar the merchant was telling me, "is thebraised liver of the blue, four-spined Cosian wingfish."This fish is a tiny, delicate fish, blue, about the size of atarn disk when curled in one's hand; it has three or fourslender spines in its dorsal fin, which are poisonous; it iscapable of hurling itself from the water and, for briefdistances, on its stiff pectoral fins, gliding through the air,usually to evade the smaller sea-tharlarions, which seem tobe immune to the poison of the spines. This fish is alsosometimes referred to as the songfish because, as a portionof its courtship rituals, the males and females thrust theirheads from the water and utter a sort of whistling sound.The blue, four-spined wingfish is found only in the watersof Cos. Larger varieties are found farther out to sea. Thesmall blue fish is regarded as a great delicacy, and its liver asthe delicacy of delicacies.” Nomads of Gor Woodpecker “Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, glidingurts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants,centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on. In thelower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds,such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird.” Explorers of Gor Worms "Originally, doubtless beans were brought from Earth," Isaid, "much as certain other seeds, and silk worms and such,but I doubt very much that the ship I saw last night had in itscargo anything as trivial as the beans for black wine." Assassins of Gor "May you bathe in the dung of Slime Worms," I called tohim cheerfully. I hoped he had a translator.” Priest Kings of Gor “Perhaps, Itold myself, she, like the Slime Worm, would have beenforced to scavenge on the previous kills of the Beetle but Ifound this hard to believe, for the condition of her body didnot suggest an ugly, protracted, degrading battle with theworms of starvation.” Priest Kings of Gor “Between thestrakes tarred ropes and tar served as caulking. Outside theplanks, too, was a coating of painted tar, to protect themfrom the sea, and the depredations of ship worms.” Maraunders of Gor Zad “They do, however, share oneugly habit with the desert zad, that of tearing out the eyes ofweakened victims. That serves as a practical guarantee thatthe victim, usually an animal, will die. Portions of flesh thezad will swallow and carry back to its nest, where it willdisgorge the flesh into the beaks of its fledglings. The zad is,in its way, a dutiful parent.” Explorers of Gor Zadit “The zadit is a small, tawnyfeathered,sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sandflies and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila,they frequently alight on the animals, and remain on them forsome hours, hunting insects. This relieves the kaiila of theinsects but leaves it with numerous small wounds, which areunpleasant and irritating, where the bird has dug insects outof its hide. These tiny wounds, if they become infected, turninto sores; these sores are treated by the drovers withpoultices of kaiila dung.” Tribesmen of Gor Zeder “There is, however, asleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet inlength and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder,which frequents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes throughthe water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built fromsticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking thewater.I listened” Explorers of Gor